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Chapter 7

Author: Hewrite
last update Last Updated: 2025-09-11 06:30:16

~ANYA’S POV~

The first few hours, I told myself it was nothing. A bad dream. A mistake. Some stupid accident that could be solved if I just made one phone call.

But hours bled into days. And days bled into a week.

Time didn’t exist in this room.

Not really. There was no clock, no sunlight to chase shadows across the floor. Just silence, heavy and endless. The only measure of life passing was the maids.

They always came the same way…quiet, ghostlike, their faces blank as porcelain.

They brought trays of food too beautiful to touch: fresh bread with golden crusts, fruit so glossy it looked fake, roasted meats dripping with fat, little cakes that looked stolen from a royal banquet.

I begged them at first.

“Where am I?”

“Please, I need to call my father. He’ll pay, I swear!”

“Am I a prisoner?”

Nothing. Not a hint of emotion, not a glance. They bowed their heads slightly, set down the food, and drifted back out.

The door always closed soft. Always locked again.

It wasn’t cruelty. If it w
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  • CALAVERA: The Mafia’s Caged Bride    091

    ~ANYA POV~A sudden, harsh pain in my chest drags me up from the crushing darkness.I gasp, my lungs seizing as they try to remember how to take in air. I open my eyes and am hit by a bright light that hurts. I have to squint and turn away from the strong light of the chandelier above me.It's blinding. It's white. It's alive.After what felt like a lifetime spent in the gloomy emptiness of unconsciousness, this overwhelming brightness is a shock to my entire system. It's too much. It's loud. The light is so bright it feels heavy on my eyelids.Slowly, carefully, I make my eyes get used to the bright light so I can see shapes. It takes a long, agonizing time. Eventually, I realize I'm not in a hospital. I am in a room. A clean room. A wide, luxurious room with gold trimmings and cream walls.The Master Bedroom.A scent drifts to my nose, quick and familiar, cutting through the clean air of the space. It isn't the metal taste of blood anymore. It's sandalwood. Cedar. It's César's colog

  • CALAVERA: The Mafia’s Caged Bride    090

    ~CÉSAR POV~The smell hits me before I even cross the threshold of the bathroom.It isn't the scent of lavender bath salts. It isn't the vanilla shampoo I bought for her. It is a scent I know better than my own name. It is the scent of iron. Of wet pennies. Of life leaking out into the open air.Blood.My heart gives a single, violent kick against my ribs...a feeling I haven't felt in years. It is a warning—a siren screaming in the back of my skull."Anya!"I roar her name, the sound tearing from my throat raw and furious. I step into the bathroom, and my world stops.The scene before me is a masterpiece of tragedy. The white marble floor, usually so spotless, is slick with crimson. It pools around her like a halo, soaking into the cream silk of her nightgown, turning it a deep, heavy red.She is slumped against the vanity cabinet, her head lolled back, her eyes half-open but seeing nothing. Her face is the color of ash.And on the floor, gleaming in a pool of her own blood, is my str

  • CALAVERA: The Mafia’s Caged Bride    089

    ~ANYA POV~I jolt awake.I don't remember falling asleep. One second, I was sitting on the window seat, whispering promises to the empty air, and the next, I was drowning in a black, suffocating slumber.I gasp, sitting up violently in the center of the massive bed. My heart is beating a desperate, broken beat against my ribs, loud enough to echo in the silent room. I am disoriented. For a heartbeat, my brain expects the damp cold of the dungeon. It expects the scurrying sound of rats and the smell of bleach.But the air here is cool and scented with lavender. The sheets tangled around my legs are made of Egyptian cotton, smooth as water.I am in the tower. I am in the gilded cage.Breathe, Anya. Breathe.I try to calm the roaring chaos in my chest, but my mind is a racetrack, accelerating with every second. The silence of this beautiful, expensive room screams at me louder than the darkness ever did.I can think clearly now. The fog of exhaustion and fever has lifted enough for me to

  • CALAVERA: The Mafia’s Caged Bride    088

    ~ANYA POV~The door clicks shut behind him.The sound isn't a slam, but it hits me in the chest just as hard. For a moment, I don't move. I sit frozen in the center of the massive bed, clutching the silk sheets like I'm holding onto a lifeline.My stomach, finally full of food, suddenly twists and squeezes. Bile rises up my throat, threatening to bring the eggs right back up.I wipe my face, surprised to find tears there. They feel hot on my skin.Why is he doing this?My whole body still remembers the way he held me just minutes ago. I keep replaying how he looked at me while I ate...the way his eyes stayed glued to my mouth, my throat... like each swallow belonged to him.I don't know why that thought terrifies me more than the starvation in the dungeon. Down there, I was a prisoner. Up here... I am a pet.I slide off the bed. My legs are still shaky, but the soft carpet cushions my feet. I walk toward the door, intending to check if he really left it unlocked like he promised.But

  • CALAVERA: The Mafia’s Caged Bride    087

    ~CÉSAR POV~"I'm here," she whispers against my chest.Her voice is soft. Defeated. It is the sound of a wild thing that has finally realized the cage is stronger than its claws.I hold her there, my chin resting on the top of her head. She smells of vanilla and sandalwood...the shampoo I bought for her. She feels warm, her body molding against mine through the thin silk of the nightgown. It is a domestic scene. A husband holding his wife. A lover holding his beloved.But as I stroke her hair, untangling a small knot near the nape of her neck, my mind is not here in this warm, golden-lit bedroom.It is back in the dark.I close my eyes, and I am back in the basement two days ago.I can still see her. My little Siren, curled on the cold concrete floor, her thin arms wrapped around herself, her whole body shaking like something small caught in a storm. I remember the moment I stepped inside that cell. Her face had lifted, smeared with dirt and tears, and the sound that tore out of her c

  • CALAVERA: The Mafia’s Caged Bride     086

    ~ANYA POV~The fork scrapes against the empty china plate. The sound is final.I have eaten everything. Every crumb of toast. Every bite of eggs. My stomach feels full for the first time in an eternity, stretched tight and heavy. It makes me sleepy, a sluggish wave crashing over my adrenaline.César sets the plate aside on the cart. He wipes his mouth with a napkin, then reaches over and wipes mine."Better," he decides, studying my face. "The color is coming back to your cheeks." He stands up and buttons his cuffs. The domestic bubble is popping. The Don is returning."I have to go down to the study," he says, checking his watch. "I have neglected business for two days to... deal with our situation. There are things that require my attention."Panic spikes in my chest. A reflex."You're leaving?" I whisper, my hands gripping the arms of the velvet chair."I am going downstairs, Anya. Not to the moon." He walks over to the dresser and picks up his suit jacket. "You are to stay in this

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